Milk, butter, eggs, and honey are everywhere in traditional baking recipes. These recipes were developed over the years with those ingredients’ unique properties in mind, making them the foundations of the cookies, cakes, enriched doughs, and muffins we love. But as more and more people pursue plant-based diets for health reasons, ethical reasons, or both, the more likely it is that we’re all baking for someone—maybe yourself!—who doesn’t eat animal products. Luckily, vegan swaps abound, and you probably already have the ingredients you need to adapt your favorite baking recipes to a plant-based diet. Here’s how.
Milk
It’s very easy to use almost any non-dairy milk—like almond, soy, oat, coconut—in place of dairy milk: Simply make a 1-to-1 swap.
A few tips to keep in mind when considering what the best non-dairy milk to use is:
- Some non-dairy milks are sweetened or flavored, so you may want to decrease any other added sugars to compensate. Depending on the recipe, using a flavored non-dairy milk (like vanilla or coconut) can be to your advantage, adding a subtle layer to your baked good. (Think vanilla-flavored non-dairy milk in a pound cake.)
- Just like dairy milks, non-dairy milks have different amounts of fat in them—and this can really affect your baking. Use fattier non-dairy milks when you want richness and body (say, for a pudding or bread dough), or anywhere you’d usually use whole dairy milk; coconut and oat milks are especially good for this.
Lighter milks, such as rice milk, make a good swap for skim or 2% milks, and can be used anywhere that moisture is needed (when making banana bread or thinning a frosting, for example).
There are non-dairy substitutes for heavy cream, buttermilk, and yogurt, too:
- For heavy cream, the richest of all, your best bet is to turn to similarly rich ingredients, like coconut milk, unsweetened coconut cream, and cashews.
- Coconut milk and coconut cream are great 1-to-1 swaps if you don’t mind the coconut flavor; coconut cream can even be whipped to fluffy peaks, just like dairy cream. For a more neutral flavor, make cashew cream by soaking cashews in water and blending them until smooth. All three make a good substitute for evaporated milk as well.
- For buttermilk and yogurt, you can borrow the same trick you might use to hack dairy buttermilk in a pinch: For a recipe that calls for 1 cup buttermilk, measure out ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons non-dairy milk and add 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, distilled white vinegar, or white wine vinegar. (Or try a non-dairy yogurt. There are so many varieties—coconut-based, cashew-based, almond-based… Just be aware of how flavors and added sweeteners will affect your final result.)
- For sour cream, use unsweetened coconut cream or cashew cream plus a little lemon juice.
Butter
When considering a vegan substitute for butter, it’s most helpful to think about how that butter is supposed to be used.
Keep in mind that many oils are boldly flavored, and that can be a very good thing. (See: bright, peppery olive oil in a citrus cake, or tropical-leaning virgin coconut oil in a banana bread, or upside-down pineapple cake.) But if you want a neutral flavor, stick to neutral oils (such as canola or sunflower) or refined coconut oil (which has no coconut flavor). If you’re using vegan butter, peek at the ingredient list to see if there is any added salt, and factor that into your recipes so that you avoid accidentally over-salting.
If it’s melted: This is the easiest swap. In recipes that call for melted butter, like some cookies, brownies, crumb crusts, and quick breads, any liquid fat—like vegetable oil, olive oil, coconut oil—can be used instead in a 1-to-1 replacement. You can also, of course, simply melt vegan butter.
If it’s creamed or “softened”: In recipes that require butter to be creamed, as with many cookie and cake recipes, you’ll need a fat that’s semisolid. Turn to virgin coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature; vegetable shortening; and vegan butter.
If it needs to be cold: In recipes where the butter needs to be kept cold, as for pie dough or biscuits, reach for the semisolid fats listed above—and be sure to refrigerate or even freeze them before beginning to cook. You may also find that vegan substitutes warm and melt more quickly than butter does, so you’ll want to work quickly and chill the doughs whenever they start to feel soft or sticky.
Eggs
Eggs are perhaps the trickiest thing to substitute because they do so many different things. They bind other ingredients together, they contribute richness and body, and they’re rising agents, making cakes and breads fluffy and light. Depending on your recipe, you’ll want to reach for different ingredients to do the job of eggs:
In creamy recipes, like pudding, or recipes that need creaminess and lift: Silken tofu, the softest variety of tofu, is ace when making puddings or pudding pies. Thick and creamy, it can take the place of both dairy and eggs. In cake and brownie recipes, try substituting ¼ cup silken tofu plus a pinch of baking powder per egg. Or try this waffle recipe, which has no eggs or dairy—the tofu does all the work.
When you need a quick thickener: In recipes that just need a little thickening, such as a pumpkin pie filling, tapioca starch, corn starch, potato starch, or arrowroot powder are your go-tos.
If a recipe doesn’t give you a specific measurement, start slowly, with about ½ teaspoon—these starches are very effective.
When you need a binder: For cookie recipes, eggs mostly serve to help bind the other ingredients together. You can achieve a similar effect by making a sort of gel out of ground flaxseeds or chia seeds mixed with water—for each egg, stir together 1 tablespoon ground flax or chia seeds with 3 tablespoons water and leave to thicken for about 5 minutes. In heartier recipes, such as banana breads or morning glory muffins, applesauce can also be an egg replacer; use ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce plus a pinch of baking powder per egg. Aquafaba—that’s the liquid from a can of chickpeas—can also be used: Use about 3 tablespoons aquafaba, whisked until foamy, per egg.
Honey
Most people who follow a vegan diet avoid honey. There are plenty of vegan-friendly alternates to choose from. Maple syrup is the most readily available, and lends its earthy, spicy sweetness to whatever it’s added to. Agave syrup, brown rice syrup, and corn syrup are relatively neutral-tasting and may be used widely, as can molasses (as long as its bold flavor works in your recipe). All may be used as a 1-to-1 replacement.
